Most of us have heard of, or experienced Pilates before, but our understandings of what Pilates actually is and what is involved in Pilates classes is quite varied from person to person. A lot depends on what we are hoping to achieve from Pilates, the instructor of the class and location of the class (is it in a gym, private class, healthcare centre etc).

The idea of this article is to give you an idea of what you can expect in my Pilates class, and also will give those of you who already attend the thoughts behind what I do in my Pilates classes.

We all know that Pilates is one of the most popular methods of conditioning out there, whether it’s to be to help with back pain, helping to prevent the chance of injury or just to feel better Pilates is more popular than ever.

Unfortunately many people out there are still not getting anywhere near as much benefit from their Pilates classes and in some cases people believe Pilates “doesn’t work”. The main reason for this is that people are simply not doing it right.

The plank. One of the most common exercises we see out there. It is meant to be one of the key exercises to help get a “strong core”, a good six pack and even help with back pain. If you search “plank” on Google, you will find many different variations of how to do the plank.

But is it really that effective? Do we really get what we want from it? Is it even worth doing?

In our next article of our series "Pilates.. Are we actually doing it right?" we look at breathing, why its important and why many of us are missing out on the benefit of doing it properly.

We all know how important breathing is in everyday life. If we don’t breathe, we don’t live. However it seems to be that we aren’t taught to breathe correctly. Especially when it comes to Pilates. Often I see lots of emphasis put in when to breathe in and out, but very little put on how to breathe correctly. If we aren’t breathing correctly then it has little effect whether we breathe in and out at the right time.

As Joseph Pilates said: “above all learn how to breathe correctly”.

Since learning and incorporating breathing into my small group Pilates classes and Therapy sessions, I have seen benefits increase greatly to participants.

In our second article in our series of "Pilates.. Are we actually doing it right" we are looking at understanding our core. In our first article we looked at "Alignment & understanding neutral". If you missed it you can find it here Pilates.. Are we doing it right part 1.

Understanding the core. If I'm honest the biggest reason people attend Therapy sessions and/or attend my Specialist Pilates classes is because of some sort of back pain. One of aims they want to achieve is to improve their "core strength" in the hope that this will improve their back pain. Whilst important there are a few more things we need to consider.

Pilates is still one of most popular forms of classes around currently (it has been for a while). Many of us do and recommend Pilates for a range of different benefits: help with back pain, posture, improve performance, and help with recurring injuries.

However over time I’ve noticed that not everyone is getting the full benefit or the full understanding of what Pilates can offer.

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to be looking at some of the key areas, which we could work on to get the most benefit from out classes.